-REporT OF THE First ASSISTANT? 
During the past year some preliminary work has been done on 
soils ; poultry experiments have been continued ; and a test of 
varieties of sorghum has been made. 
This report contains record of the results thus far secured. 
More extended work on these experiments was not possible on 
_ account of the time given to the repairing of the old barn, etc., 
the building of a poultry-house, the bull stalls and piggery. 
Somns OF THE FARM. 
In connection with proposed field experiments it was desirable 
that the composition of the soil of the farm should be known. 
For convenience the principal fields were lettered, and samples 
taken from each. About fifty small vertical sections were taken 
and mixed for each sample; and when thoroughly air dried this 
sample was reduced by repeated quartering to a bulk small enough 
for convenientse handling. With an implement devised for the 
purpose, it was not difficult to get an unbroken section. The 
samples of top soil were taken to a depth of ten inches and the 
subsoil samples from the next six inches below. No stones of 
more than about an inch in diameter were included in the samples. 
Noticeably uneven fields were divided into two or more parts, ° 
which were sampled separately. 
A mechanical separation of each sample was made, using about 
1,200 grams of soil. All pebbles larger than peas were first 
removed, and then the sample passed through sieves of respec- 
tively ten, twenty, thirty, forty and fifty meshes to the inch. Only 
that portion which passed through the fifty-mesh sieve was 
reserved for chemical analysis. In the top soils this portion was 
only 64.8 per cent, and in the subsoils 57.4 per cent of the soil - 
*William P. Wheeler. 
